Dr. Eva Aboagye

Eva Aboagye joined Centennial College in 2002 as Research Officer in the Centre for Instructional Development. Born in Ghana, she arrived in Canada in 1989 to obtain a Masters and a Doctoral degree from the University of Toronto. Prior to that Eva had obtained a Bachelors degree in Sociology and English from the University of Ghana. In addition, Eva had undertaken a United Nations sponsored Graduate Diploma program at the University of Ghana aimed at training demographers for the African region. After graduation, Eva worked for five years at the University of Ghana as an Assistant Registrar. Her assignments included three years in the personnel department and two years as special assistant to the Vice Chancellor.

Eva has extensive research experience dating back to the years after her first degree when she was in charge of data collection in the eastern region of Ghana on a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Poverty Study. Her experience also includes a summer internship with the World Bank doing research for the Bank in Washington DC. As well Eva has worked on a project on Immigrant Women and Employability skills funded by Human Resources Development Canada. Shortly after completing her doctoral degree, Eva set up a research consulting practice and her projects included assisting community organizations develop research capacity. Since 2002, Eva has been actively involved in institutional research at the College.

Eva has served as Co-Editor of the Ontario Journal of Higher Education and has published a chapter in a book and a number of articles including the following:

• Financing Higher Education Students: Comparing Current Trends and Options in Africa and Canada in New Directions in African Education: Challenges and Possibilities ed. By S. Nombuso Dlamini (2008)
• Changing Student Population in Ghanaian Universities: Implications for Curriculum and Teaching Methods in Higher Education Perspectives, Volume 1, 1996/97
• Evolving a Student Financing Scheme: The Ghanaian Experience in the Ontario Journal of Higher Education, 1994

Eva's research interests are in access and student financing and the changing role of postsecondary institutions. A secondary research interest is in accountability and performance measures. Her specific research interests for the future include "Education for Local and Global Integration: Role of Colleges as agents for economic and social integration; Trends in Global Citizenship and Social Justice Education in Postsecondary Institutions; Psycho-Social Barriers to Postsecondary Participation in Urban Environments: Perceptions of Young Adults who stopped out from School about Postsecondary Education.

At Centennial Eva taught a number of Continuing Education courses including Research Made Easy; Our Diverse Learners and Helping Students Learn from Each Other.

She has also held a number of management positions at the College including Research Officer, Manager of Strategic Institutional Planning and Performance, Director of Policies, Pathways and Grants and Senior Researcher.